Ok so I moved from Phoenix to Charlotte in May and one thing that I will miss this year is going Christmas Caroling with my firends. As far back as I can remember, I would go caroling with my friends from my romanian church on Christmas Eve night EVERY year. A typical eve night would go something along the lines of this: 50-100 of us showing up at 20-30 different homes and singing romanian christmas carols. And because these people usually have asked to be put on the list to have us come and sing, they usually have a TON of food prepared and would invite all of us into their home, where we would continue to sing and eat merrily for about 10 minutes or so in each home. This usually goes on from about 10:00pm Christmas Eve night until about 8:00am Christmas morning!
Sadly, most of the romanians that live in North Carolina are in the Hickory area which is pretty far from me and so this will be the first year that I won’t be participating in this activity. It is actually really sad for me to think about that at the moment, since I thrive on sentimental memories. Especially during Christmas, since it is my most favorite time of the year. I do miss Arizona, in a sense that I miss the fellowship I had with everyone I knew. But I also miss Chicago, where I lived most of my life before Phoenix. I miss the white winters there. What I miss most is:
~running like heck out of the hot shower to avoid the nippy cold air of my underheated house, and hiding under three layers of blankets on my bed, and sitting there for long moments until I was sure I had escaped the possibility of hypothermia
~sitting by the fireplace with my boxer dog Max
~strategically opening presents and re-wrapping them to tell my brothers what they got for Christmas before Christmas day…of course not without requiring favors from them (doing my chores, etc…)
~christmas caroling and having snowballs thrown at my ear…hurts like heck!
~always wishing for snow on Christmas day and never being disappointed
~watching ‘Home Alone 1 & 2′, the old and new version of ‘Miracle on 34th Street’, ‘Muppet Christmas Carol’, & ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
~listening to Christmas music from Halloween until Easter
~leaving the Christmas decorations on from Halloween until Easter
~The best sound ever: the silence you hear when the snow is falling quietly. I could sit outside and listen to it forever. It’s as if your mind is cleared from everything that is happening in life all around you.
Every Christmas while living in AZ and now in NC, I think about Chicago and all the beauty it had shown me during winter and how much I miss it. People move away from Chicago to get away from its winters. I am drawn to it more and more each year.
Here is a little video clip of a romanian children’s choir singing a very old romanian Christmas carol. Enjoy!
by Caroline
1 comment